Lighthouse Ghosts [Paperback]

Norma Elizabeth (Author), Bruce Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 1999

The mystic nature of a lighthouse almost requires embodiment beyond its structure. And what could be more romantic and chilling than a haunting? Lighthouse Ghosts contains 13 stories of bona fide apparitions standing watch over Americas shores that will satisfy your craving for the supernatural. Historical details about each lighthouse, the keepers and their families, and the events that changed their lives forever provide chilling context for these haunted tales. Accompanying photographs by award-winning photographer Bruce Roberts bring the ghosts vivid stories to life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Crane Hill Publishers; Early Printing edition (January 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1575870924
• ISBN-13: 978-1575870922
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,434,664 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ghostly guardians of our Shores, March 12, 2002

By 

E. A. Lovitt "starmoth" (Gladwin, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lighthouse Ghosts (Paperback)

This is a lightweight, amiable guide of the sort you might pick up in a tourist trap on your way to Martha's Vineyard or Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The lighthouses described in the book are located on the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts, and on the Great Lakes, with one on the Gulf of Mexico thrown in to make an `even' thirteen stories.

The lighthouses and their keepers are meticulously described with some not-so-scary ghosts added as an extra tourist attraction. There are also black-and-white photographs of each lighthouse and/or the keepers' residence, along with directions on how to find them.

Some of the lighthouses or keepers' dwellings are bed-and-breakfasts, so you can check out the phantoms during an overnight stay if you so desire. All of the stories are supposedly authentic, so take a flashlight with you in case the big beacon fails---or turns on when it shouldn't (see the story of the Old Presque Isle Light Station on Lake Huron.)

The saddest story involves the history of the St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida, where there are a multiplicity of spirits to choose from, including one who smokes cigars. The smallest phantom might be the daughter of a nineteenth-century lighthouse keeper: she was killed along with two of her friends, when a tram used to haul supplies from the dock to a construction site, "suddenly broke loose, hurtled down the rails, and dumped the three girls into the water. All of them drowned."

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Ghost Lights Run Amuck., October 30, 2004

By 

Dennis Phillips "The Book Friar" (Bulls Gap, Tennessee USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Lighthouse Ghosts (Paperback)

For the millions of people who have fallen under the magical spell of America's lighthouses this is a book that really belongs on your shelf. The author has filled this book with not only ghost stories but also the history and personality of thirteen of America's most beautiful lighthouses. For the ghost enthusiast however, this will be light reading at best.

The ghost stories to be found in this book are interesting but are lacking in detail. There are some recent eyewitness accounts, which are always good, but the author seems to lack any real feeling for her subject. Each story is treated as a lighthearted story told just for fun instead of being a factual account of a real haunting. The words "maybe" and "perhaps" appear far to often in this book.

One chapter deals with the haunted light of Presque Isle, which has come under recent scrutiny. Some scientists have accounted for the mysterious light from a very explainable source but their investigation raised more questions than it answered. Apparently some very strange things happened while this team was at the lighthouse and while they could explain the light, they couldn't explain the other phenomena. Another chapter deals with the Hatteras sightings of the ghost of Theodosia Burr. The story is well told and more than one version of legend is presented but the author plays somewhat fast and loose with the historical facts concerning Burr's famous father. Another chapter deals with a pipe smoking ghost that suddenly changes to a cigar smoker at the end of the story. This is something that the editor should have caught.

Overall this is an interesting book and it can easily be read in one sitting. Lighthouse lovers will be far more enchanted with the book than will ghost hunters but even the ghostly crowd will find some good background information here. Best of all, at the end of each chapter there are directions to the site along with an address and sometimes a web site. It wasn't what I was hoping for but my time and money weren't wasted at all.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for lighthouse buffs, and lovers of ghost stories., August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Lighthouse Ghosts (Paperback)

Anyone who has a romance with lighthouses like I do, and likes great stories like I do, will love this book. I certainly do. 'Excellent writing and photography too.